Brendan Nyhan on “The Politics of Scandal”

Dartmouth College political scientist and media critic Brendan Nyhan spoke at Northeastern on Monday evening about “The Politics of Scandal.” I live-tweeted his talk and put together a Storify, which you can view by clicking here.

@Steve: Good question, and no, though perhaps it’s in his paper, which I haven’t had a chance to read. One possible explanation is that facts sometimes do matter. The very amorphous nature of Whitewater meant that it could never be disproved, whereas the IRS claims were disproved very quickly.

I don’t think you could rely on Nyhan’s other measurements. Among other things, the Republican base hated both Clinton and Obama.